Throughout his corporate career Thomas has been associated with outstanding business results. His background includes strategy development, marketing management, advertising and communications, training and development, sales management, commissioned sales, customer service, and purchasing.
Thomas Stirr is the author of two books: Miller’s Bolt: A Modern Business Parable, and 4 Ounces to Heaven: A Search for the Energy of Life. AddisonWesley originally published Miller’s Bolt in North America in 1997, with the book garnering with some critical acclaim. Subsequently Editions Grijalbo published a Spanish-language version of the book, El Tornillo de Miller, for the South American market in 1998.
Thomas’ first book, Miller's Bolt: A Modern Business Parable, has inspired many people to take charge of their lives, improve their relationships, find better work/life balance, advance their careers, and reach more of their potential. After the publication of Miller's Bolt readers began asking Tom for coaching on the techniques contained in the book to help improve their personal performance. They recognized the simple, yet powerful concepts contained in Miller’s Bolt, as did KEN BLANCHARD (co-author of The One-Minute Manager and Everyone's a Coach) who provided the book's foreword. A number of companies have made Miller's Bolt mandatory reading for their internal coaching personnel.
Thomas specializes in a number of training and facilitation areas including personal effectiveness, project management, strategic selling, leadership competency, team building, and strategic development. He speaks to corporations, public organizations, and community groups on a range of issues including maximizing personal potential, leadership, relationship management, and communication.
He is an accomplished facilitator and has developed processes that encourage individual participation and creativity, produce a strong sense of personal ownership and commitment, and help bring consensus and cohesion to management teams. Some of his facilitation specialties include mission and vision statements, risk management, strategic planning, change management, and project specific programs.
His keynotes are known for their creativity and innovative approaches. Thomas integrates multiple learning styles in his presentations to help ensure maximum audience impact.
Thomas is an engaging, provocative, and inspiring coach. He is a graduate of Corporate Coach University, and adheres to the highest levels of ethical standards. Utilizing a foundation of proven techniques in his coaching practice, Thomas has also developed a number of powerful, proprietary approaches including The Performance Spiral™.
Thomas holds an MBA from Athabasca University, the largest executive MBA program in Canada, and the world’s first on-line MBA program. The Athabasca University program was the first ever on-line MBA to be recognized by the Financial Times of England, making the publication’s Top 75 world-wide list of recommended MBA programs. Athabasca University was also the first Canadian university to be recognized by a United States educational accreditation body. Athabasca University awarded Thomas two scholarships for top performance in MBA academic excellence.